Banco Santander Regulatory News (BNC)

MATERIAL FACT ANNOUNCEMENT

Further to the relevant fact communication dated 4 July 2017 in connection with the capital increase with pre-emptive subscription rights of Banco Santander, S.A. (the "Capital Increase" and "Banco Santander", respectively) (registry number 254,243), Banco Santander informs that the Spanish Securities Market Commission ("CNMV"), pursuant to Article 39 of the reinstated text of the Securities Market Law, as approved by means of Royal Legislative Decree 4/2015, of 23 October, has granted the "Community Passport" to the Informative Prospectus in connection with the Capital Increase (which is comprised of the Share Registration Document, the Share Securities Note and the Summary), which it has notified to the competent authorities in Italy, Poland, Portugal and the United Kingdom in order for the Informative Prospectus to gain cross-border effectiveness and be used in connection with the Capital Increase in such jurisdictions.

The Informative Prospectus is available at the web pages of the CNMV (www.cnmv.es) and of Banco Santander (www.santander.com).

Boadilla del Monte (Madrid), 5 July 2017

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

The present announcement is not an informative prospectus but an informative communication and investors should not subscribe any new shares of Banco Santander, S.A. ("Banco Santander" or the "Bank") or purchase any pre-emptive subscription rights for new shares of the Bank's Capital Increase referred to herein except on the basis of the information contained in the prospectus in connection with the capital increase which has been registered with the Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores ("CNMV") on 4 July 2017 and is publicly available at the Bank's registered address and, in electronic format, in the web pages of the Bank (www.santander.com) and the CNMV (www.cnmv.es). Likewise, the Bank has obtained the community passport of the informative prospectus for the purposes of it being cross-border effective in the United Kingdom, Italy, Portugal and Poland.

This communication does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of offers to subscribe, the pre-emptive subscription rights or the new shares of the share capital increase in any jurisdiction in which such offer or solicitation is unlawful or, as the case may be, until the applicable requirements for those purposes have been met. The distribution of this communication and/or the prospectus and/or the transfer of pre-emptive subscription rights and/or new shares into jurisdictions other than Spain, the United Kingdom, Italy, Portugal and Poland may be restricted by law. Persons who gain access to the information set out herein should be aware of and comply with any such restrictions. Any failure to comply with them may constitute a breach of the securities laws of any such jurisdiction.

This communication (i) must not be construed in any way to be a request to buy or to sell securities or any related financial instruments in Brazil, and (ii) must not be construed in any way to be a public offering of securities in Brazil. The Brazilian Securities Commission (Comissão de Valores Mobiliários) has not authorised the public offering of shares to which this communication refers nor of any securities related to such shares. Hence, the said shares cannot be offered to the public in Brazil.

The Bank has filed a registration statement (including a prospectus) with the SEC for the capital increase and the offering of new shares and subscription rights to which this communication relates. Before you invest, you should read the prospectus in that registration statement and other documents the Bank has filed with the SEC for more complete information about the issuer and this offering. You may get these documents for free by visiting EDGAR on the SEC Web site at www.sec.gov. Alternatively, you may obtain a copy of the prospectus from Citigroup by calling toll free 1-800-831-9146 or UBS by calling toll free 1-877-387-2275.

The public offering of the new Banco Santander shares has been authorised by the Argentine National Securities Commission, and the Subscription Announcement (Aviso de Suscripción) setting forth the procedure and term for the subscription for new shares in Argentina has already been published in such jurisdiction. The capital increase to which this announcement refers and the Argentine offering will have the same terms and conditions, save as otherwise provided in the relevant Subscription Announcement. The Bank envisages to request the admission to trading of the new shares in the Buenos Aires stock exchange.